Hyundai readying half a dozen UVs for Indian market

Hyundai’s pricing range would be pretty wide — from ₹5 lakh to ₹40 lakh — to compete in a segment that accounts for one in four personal-transport vehicles sold in Asia’s No. 3 economy.Ketan Thakkar | ETAuto | Updated: August 31, 2018, 10:34 IST

Mumbai: To tap into the country’s increasing demand for utility vehicles, the South Korean carmaker would make half a dozen SUVs and crossovers for the local market. Hyundai’s pricing range would be pretty wide — from ₹5 lakh to ₹40 lakh — to compete in a segment that accounts for one in four personal-transport vehicles sold in Asia’s No. 3 economy.

This would mean, more than 60% of the company’s local product line-up will consist of crossovers and UVs that is 8 out 13 vehicles in the next 3-5 years.

Y K Koo, MD of Hyundai Motor India, told ET that in the immediate future, the company would have built a customer base of over 4 lakh Creta owners who would be looking for an upgrade; Hyundai does not want its current Creta owners to go to competition.

“We are going to be strengthening our SUV portfolio both below and above Creta,” Koo said. “The QXi and Micro SUV can address the affordable end of the market. We also want to retain our existing Creta customers who will be looking for an upgrade going ahead , and we will not allow these customers to go to competition (Toyota Fortuner).”

QXi will be the first to hit the roads in 2019 and a beginning point for the launch of many SUVs. It will take on the likes of Ford EcoSport and Vitara Brezza. It will be followed by new generation i20 Active and Creta.

While the current Creta is addressing the compact SUV buyers, between 2020 to 2023, Hyundai wants to offer a 7-seater version of Creta codenamed SU2i, followed by 5- and 7-seater new gen Tucson (NX4i) to take on the Jeep Compass and Toyota Fortuner. It will also make a Micro SUV to challenge Mahindra KUV.

Learning from the past below par performance of Tucson and Santa Fe which were either imported as fully built or in a knocked down form, Hyundai aims to locally manufacture the Tucson twins to compete against Jeep Compass and Toyota Fortuner, respectively. Kona EV will also be assembled in the second half of next year.

The utility vehicle segment has been the fastest growing in India, with volumes more than doubling in the last five years to almost 9.2 lakh units per year. The segment is set to see more than 50 new introductions in the coming three to five years from various automakers, expanding the size of the segment to 1.5 million units over the next three-four years, say industry sources.

In fact, segment leaders like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp have reported de-growth of 34.3 per cent, 45 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively giving a clear indication of a prolonged slowdown in the sector.